We have our first duck split opening tomorrow morning on Chesapeake Bay!!! Cold front came throught and delivered our first frost this morning. Full mon was last week so ducks should be everywhere!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, but I never found it that hard to get a deer. Not to toot my own horn, but I can get a deer while driving down the road at 50 mph with my lights on, horn blazing, and eating a bean burrito.

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have you ever thought about a more challenging hunt?? it's not all about the killing for me. try a backpack in trip in the mountains some where...you won't be sorry
no offense intended, but i felt the same way a few years ago, now i am looking into different areas to hunt more for the overall experience of it than the killing
ptyd

Cliff, Don't you just hate when people are so irresponsible... can really mess with a nice day out in the field. I've found that area around Durr road can be hit and miss for birds I think. I have seen bunches of them there and then I go back a few days later and it is barren. There are certainly spots nearby that have hordes of chukar and decent numbers of Huns. I saw probably 8 groups of chukar one morning hunting in early september in one of my spots in the Canyon. Sat there glassing for deer and was able to see and hear 3 different groups of Chukar within 150 yards of me. It was sweet.

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Mr Trout: There used to be a few more birds in the Durr Rd area, and of course wfdw releases the pen-raised roosters a couple of times per year, but you are right about the hit and miss. This was a short, quick hunt and that's what Durr Rd is good for. I am a chukar hunter, primarily, so I know you're right about some good numbers elsewhere in this vast area. I also hunt the Quilomene/Colockum a bit, as well as Oak Creek. Sure have to work for those birds, though!

Itchy Dog: I hunted the duck opener at a blind at Toppenish last year and had a ball. I got a few shots in and missed each one. I'm an ok upland shot, but I was amazed at how easy it was to miss decoyed ducks. The highlight of the day, however, was my white coated Llewellin setter jumping in the pond to retrieve my friends mallard before his gsp could even get wet. THAT was a hoot.

Me too. I'm a bowhunter at heart, but a bird hunter almost as much. This is my dog's first fall he's old enough to hunt, so I'm getting him out as much as possible. He's new to hunting, so right now it's pretty much just running around in the woods. Hunted tonight, flushed one, no shot. But we did run into a huge bear on the way out!

This would have been a great pic if not for the shadow across my face. Thus is the case for pics taken on a tripod and a timer.

Good luck my butt, deer hunters, hah! I was hunting Mt Hull for grouse and saw the "orange bloom" in full blossom. What a buch of road hunting Gomers! The topper was the two idiots blasting down the washboard with idiot number 3 standing in the pickup bed, hands on the roof "scouting" for that big buck. What a bunch of jerks! Gives honest deer hunters a bad name.

Don't forget idiot number 4 stopped on the county road glassing 4 does about 75 yards off sitting inside the cattle corral of Joe Local farmer. Did he really think one was a legit target? At least he could have used the truck hood for a shooting rest, right?

lol i have 3 bags (ea bag has 1 deer hide) of deer hide sitting in my garage... i dont know what to do with it all... Does any one know any fly patterns that require tons of deer hair?

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You know who makes use of that stuff is buckskinners, those mt. man reenactors. I did some of that back in the 1980's. They hold these rendevous which is a big camp out and muzzle loader shoot. Anyway you had to wear clothing that was in use in the mountains no later than 1840. Which meant you had to sew up your own skins. Whagh!

Well… Muzzleloader Early Deer Season was interesting to say the least… First we were moved a week later in October, so it just so happens that it also was the full moon week. Moonrise 9:00pm – Moonset 1:30pm out all night and most of the day…

Second (NO OFFENSE INTENDED), since our season was moved up, it butted right up against the Modern Firearms (Rifle) Season, we had everybody and their brother, cousin, uncle, dog showing up on Wednesday and Thursday, so lets just say the noise and shooting level went up (I don’t understand why they don’t sight their rifle in before they get to where they want to hunt or where others may be hunting).

So, the weather was nice, we wished it would have been cloudy to cover the moon, but it was cold in the morning, 28-34, and then warm in the afternoon, 55-65. We were hunting above 2800ft. Mid Central Eastern Cascades. Fall Colors… gotta love it...

We had done some good scouting over several months, noting several really good spots with sign and animals. We literally beat the brush and put in some serious miles (and elevation gains) of hiking and hunting. Even the horseback hunters were impressed with how far and the many locations that they had seen our tracks.

So, on the day 5 of the 7day hunt, I had climbed to about ¾ of the way to the top of Yellow Hill and then traversed the side to get to one of the ridge tops that I had scouted. I spent the morning watching the opposite hillsides and draws for sign of movement… at 8:00am I spotted 2 bucks, 1 2x2 not legal to shoot, and 1 3x3 legal to shoot, on the opposite ridge feeding down the hill. So, I skirted down the hidden side of my ridge to be opposite and then tried to work my way up and over to them…. Every time I went towards them they would just move up and into the brush… when I went down they would come back out… I got tired of that game and physically worn. So, I climbed back to rock lookout on the ridge. I went back to watching. The bucks fed down and into the brush filled draw. At about 10:30am I heard noise behind me, out came 4 young deer, 3 does and then I saw antlers… but it ended up being another 2x2 not legal to shoot.

At about 11:30 I radio My Partner and say I am heading down the mountain and meet him at the truck for lunch and then back out and at it…. He agrees… so I start down the ridgeline and get to the “Sacagawea Rock” (one that the wife had stood on and pointed at some deer the month before) to take once final look across the draw at several clearings before the hike out…

12:00, Well, I do my look and then am just standing looking at the beautiful colors and no noise, when all of a sudden… OH Shiat… right below me on the cross game trail just inside the tree line there stands a buck looking right at me. I glass him and can’t see the points, so I range find him, 43 yards, then I go back to the binoculars… turn your head, turn your head… as I am slowing everything down… finally he looks forward up the trail… there it is 3 points… he is going to be mine…. I pull the double set trigger, then put the sites on him, and ease the my finger onto the front trigger, and my smokepole barks!!! Down drops the buck…! So, I go to the quick reload mode… ready to shoot again if needed… as I start down the steep hillside to the buck… I get about 15 yards away and he tries to stand up… and collapses and falls off the trail and goes rolling down the hillside. So, I wait and he stops sliding… then I wait… then I start down the hill again and he moves his head… that starts him sliding down the hill again and finally stops at the bottom in the thick vine maple… so I get down there and put a finishing shot into him. YAWHOOO…..

Oh Shiat… now I have to get him back up that steep ridgeline and down the mountain…. My Partner calls on the radio and asks what I shot… and then says he is on his way… thank God for GREAT hunting partners…!

So, while I am gutting him, My Partner heads out for the game cart for part of the trip out once we get to the lower hillside. It ended up taking us both working our ass off from 1:00 to 4:30 to get the deer to the truck at the trail head…. Wow it was hot hard work…! But he is in the cooler now…!

My Partner had been drawn for a Doe Tag… so on Thursday afternoon we found a nice big doe… and he filled his tag as well… so we are done deer hunting…!

Now… getting ready for the late season Elk hunt…! Planning on taking my son out during the late rifle hunt… maybe need another freezer.

Cheers and Tight Lines.... wow... now maybe I can go fishing... :beer1:

Good story! and great pictures. Mid Central Eastern Cascades?. Sounds like the general area I hunt. But I rarely see bucks and they don't have much size when I do... Except for one I saw 2 years ago driving home from fishing, that boy had some bigguns.

i had my first duck hunt of the year yesterday. Limited in the afternoon afterchasing quail in the am. 4 widgeon, 2 mallards(a banded hen) and a pintail.
Kind of nice to sit in the blind afterchasing chukars in hells canyon for the 3 previous days. can;t wait for some cold weather

The biggest buck I have ever seen was spotted when I was driving along I 80 in broad daylight heading east out of Reno along the Truckee river. At first I thought it was a log floating in the river with big branches coming off it, but then I saw it was a buck! I had to pull over to get a better look, there wasn't much traffic. He came out of that river basin onto the shoulder of the road, the biggest Mule deer I have seen. He was completely fearless. Trotted across that interstate as majestic as could be, and climbed up the hills on the other side disappearing into the rocks and sage.

Then more recently I was driving at night out of Arcada California on my way back to Seattle. I was driving a 2 lane winding hwy through rugged country that would take me to grants Pass. It was completely dark, then in my headlights appears this full grown mountain lion or cougar! this guy was big too. Big head, sway back, and a long fat tail. He was fast, only saw him for a second and he was out of my headlights and gone.

wabowhunter - nice buck! :thumb: That's some pretty country and great photos. It's no wonder you witnessed the blaze orange hatch - that area is one of the most heavily hunted areas in the state. Sure was nice hunting about 15 years ago.

If you're running out of room in the freezer, I'll be glad to lessen your load by taking a few steaks!